The Secrets of Shadow
by Alyx the Fox
Summary: I have a general idea as to what I'm doing with this story... need to put it down though and then I can go from there. It'll be romance/adventure when I'm done and I plan on making it kinda long. It WILL stay rated T. No lemons. Period. May have an OC. *On hiatus until I have inspiration for the pairing again*


Disclaimer- I do not own any of the character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Authors Notes- This is my first fanfiction so any constructive criticism is appreciated. Also this fic could take a little while because I'm writing it in my spare time, which I don't get much of. It will probably be updated every two weeksish but maybe faster. Lastly, ages: Cream-21 Sonic-22- Knuckles-24 Rouge-22 Amy-21 Tails-19 Shadow-Ageless Silver-23 Blaze-22

Tails awoke to sunlight streaming in through the window. He had to admit, dawn was his favorite part of the day. The sun seemed so much brighter and it was a nice alarm clock because it was comforting, not disorienting like a normal alarm clock. He sat up in bed and stretched himself with the light reflecting his soft, golden fur, causing him to glow slightly. He got up to get dressed, choosing a pair of worn blue jeans and a white shirt, both having stains on them, for his day in his workshop. Tails headed downstairs and fixed himself an quick ham and cheese omelet before heading into his workshop. The workshop had counter space and cabinets along every wall and an island in the center for his larger projects. To the west there was a door that led to a small hanger, and opposite of that was a window occupying the entire east wall, allowing the morning sun to light the room. Almost all of the counter space was being used, either by his many projects or by the blueprints that went along with them or had no prototype yet. He turned on the song "live and Learn" by Crush 40 and began to work on one of his projects.

A few hours later, someone knocked on the door coming in from the house, causing Tails to jump slightly. "It's open," he called.

Sonic opened the door and watched Tails for a second before asking, "Are you still coming to the party?"

Party? Tails wondered to himself before realizing what Sonic was talking about. "Yeah, I'm going. What time is it?" he asked.

"Almost 3:00" Sonic said with a smirk.

"Almost 3:00!" Tails yelped in surprise. "Give me, like, fifteen minutes to take a shower and then I'll be ready!" he shouted over his shoulder, rushing upstairs already.

Tails walked downstairs after his shower, sporting another white shirt, this one without stains, and a pair of tan cargo shorts. "Took you long enough," Sonic said with a smirk on his face once again, "That took you almost a sixteen minutes"

"Oh shut it," Tails said, shoving Sonic playfully, "Not everyone can be as fast as you." With that, they headed out for the party. I can't believe I forgot Cream's birthday party, he thought, I've had a crush on her for almost a year now, you'd think I'd remember. A small blush appeared on his cheeks, then disappeared quickly. Whatever, he thought, no harm, no foul. They were approaching Cream's house. The walk there wasn't too awfully far, twenty minutes at a leisurely stroll, easily half that at the pace Sonic walked at. Cream lived in a skinny, two story building that had a simple wooden door to the right and a single decent sized window to the left. The building itself was, oddly enough, cream in color. The pair walked up to the door, and Sonic knocked on the door. Cream, dressed in a pink dress, opened the door with cheese sitting on her shoulder.

"Hey Cream," Tails said trying to avoid blushing and to keep his duel tails from twitching nervously but failing miserably.

"Hey Tails," replied Cream with a small smile on her lips, "Come on in, everyone else is already here."

"What," asked Sonic with a smile on his face, "no 'Hey' for me?" Just then, a pink hedgehog tackled Sonic to the ground yelling, "Hey Sonic!"

"Me and my big mouth," Sonic mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Tails to hear over his and Creams laughing. "Hey Amy," he said louder, "you can get off me now."

"Sorry Sonic," Amy replied cheerfully. With that, Sonic got back up, dusted himself off, and headed into the living room with Amy, Cream, and Tails following him. The room was fairly large, it had entirely hard wood floors with a small TV in one corner with a sofa and love seat to separate the area from the attached kitchen and dining room spaces. Blaze was sitting on the love seat next to her boyfriend silver who had his arm around her shoulders, Knuckles was sitting on the couch with Rouge in the same fashion, and Shadow was sitting on the highest part of the couch with one leg dangling over the cushion and the other at an angle that helped him balance. Between them on a coffee table lay Cream's birthday cake with a candle in the shape of a twenty-one on top and, much to Tails' distain, some alcohol near it to mark the occasion. On the floor next to that, there were some board games and a couple decks of cards for after her cake. Everyone, except of course Shadow who was listening intently, was talking loudly to each other. Everyone turned to watch them enter and Blaze snapped her fingers, causing them to light on fire, then leaned forward and lit the candle shaking her hand to put the fire in her hand back out.

Cream walked over and sat next the the coffee table, Tails crouching on her right, Sonic standing to her left with Amy clinging to him, and Cheese flying around her. Then Shadow dimmed the lights and everyone everyone else sang her "Happy Birthday". When the were finished, Silver used to telekinesis to grab a knife from the kitchen, remove the candle and cut the cake, which appeared to be vanilla with some sort of caramel like icing. Rouge then served it on some small plates, giving Cream the piece with the most icing first. After the cake, which was in fact vanilla and caramel, they pulled out the games and alcohol. Everyone had a glass, except for Tails and Shadow. Knuckles had offered one to Tails but he refused saying, "No thanks, I hate the taste of alcohol and I will never risk getting drunk," which made Knuckles just shrug and pour it in his own glass. Tails, of course, enjoyed the games because, as the only entirely sober one in the room, he was smoking everyone. After each loss they took a small shot of alcohol. After six or seven hours, the smell of alcohol in the room became too much for Tails to bear, and he left the room, going to Cream's back porch and get some fresh air.

Tails sat down on a chair and looked up at the stars. The night sky is so beautiful he thought to himself, Cream coming to his mind at the thought of beauty making him sigh miserably. In a couple of minutes, Cream came out onto the back porch.

"You okay Tails?" she asked quietly.

Tails looked at her with a small blush. "I'm fine," he replied sounding anything but to himself.

She crouched down next to him, looked him in the eyes, and asked, "Are you sure."

The smell of alcohol on her breath made Tails retract a bit in disgust and scowl. "Positive," He replied, his tone implying that the matter was closed.

"If you insist," she said. "The party is over now by the way. We're all cleaned up too so you and Sonic can head home now."

"Thanks," he replied nodding his head slightly, "see you later."

Tails carried Sonic home, stripping off all but his friends underwear when they got there, and putting him to bed. Tails watched him sleep like a baby for few moments, then went to take a shower with the intent of removing the odor of alcohol that had attached itself to him. Tails turned the water on to a heat that began steaming quickly. He slowly removed his shirt, which now had a cake stain on it, his shorts, then his underwear and socks, looking in the mirror to see if he might look at all attractive to anyone. Deciding after a couple of minutes that it was conceivable that someone could find him attractive, he got in the shower, feeling the hot water stream through his fur and compressing his bangs against his head. He turned down the temperature of the water a little, just to the point where it was still warm enough but it wouldn't cause him to sweat any. Then he turned away from the shower head, clasped his fingers around his neck, and hung his head, beginning to think. Cream. Like always, the first thought to pop into his mind was her, though this time in a much less attractive light, for he was imagining her as he last saw her, border-lining drunkenness, but still more or less with the program. He had feelings for her but he wasn't so sure he should anymore after seeing her in that state. He shook his head roughly to make himself stop thinking about that. I can't hardly judge her yet, he thought, it's just one thing and it's been only one time, who knows she could stop drinking entirely. He shampooed himself and then used conditioner and finished his shower. He walked to his room, entirely naked, and put on a pair of underwear and some sweatpants, then went to bed.

A couple days later, Tails was working on the same project from the day of the party, a sort of glove like device that converted energy to mass which was almost done, though he was having a problem finding a strong enough power source to sustain its use without using the chaos emeralds. He was interrupted by a knock on his door. He'd already put down the project and was cleaning his hands so he went and checked the door himself. when he opened the door he was grabbed by the shirt, pulled into the hallway, and thrown through his front door, which was also in that hallway. Tails rolled through the grass, fairly disoriented by him smashing his door. He stood up to see who had attacked him, wincing. He had been attacked by a pitch black echidna with small tendrils of white extending from the front of her head to the end of her dreadlocks. The echidna was dressed in armor that covered her hands, forearms, shins, feet, and chest that was all dark grey. She was fairly small, a whole head shorter than Tails, who was fairly short himself, but according to the door she was strong. She had no visible weapons other than her fists and feet.

"I hear you know the one named 'Shadow'. Where do I find him?" Her voice was clear, but quiet, almost gentle, despite her finding the need to throw him through a door.

"No offense, but why should I tell you?" Tails said to her, trying to match her calm demeanor.

"I need to... talk to him," she replied.

"I'm not going to tell you," Tails said defiantly, now ready for a fight.

"No?" she asked raising her eyebrows, as if she weren't quite used to being denied

"No."

"Well, lets see if I can... persuade you," and with that, she disappeared.

He looked at the spot where she had stood, taken aback by the sudden disappearance, only to be jabbed in the back by a now visible echidna. Luckily, tails was better at hand-to-hand combat than he used to be and he recovered quickly. He tried to kick her stomach, but she grabbed his leg and flipped him. He had already braced himself for the landing and rolled backwards upon impact, landing in a standing position. She had caught on to what he was doing and tried to punch him as he stood, which he deflected using his tails and kicked her in the back of the knee, making her fall. She wasn't on the ground for more than quarter of a second before she was back on her feet and trying to punch him, which he dodged. He then tried to kick her head, but she blocked it with her forearm... which was covered in armor. He immediately retracted his leg and tested it, but it couldn't hold his weight. It appeared to be heavily bruised, but not broken. Tails had to use only his other leg. While this was processing, she disappeared again. This time she reappeared when her foot was inches from his face, and this hit made him black out instantly.


End file.
